Legacy of Iokath: Swimming Rain
by Mechalich
Summary: Book Two in the Legacy of Iokath. Kanner and Arleyk travel to a rain-soaked mountain world and stumble upon a derelict cruiser. Droids swarm as the pair struggle to acquire native aid and prevent a second apocalypse from claiming the planet.


Chapter One

"We're coming up on target system JX967A24 now," Kanner announced to his audience of one as the reversion counter ticked down. "Let's hope we have better luck with this one."

"That would be nice, indeed," Arleyk's affirmation was laced with grim reflection.

"Maybe third time's the charm," a faint hope, that, the way things were going, but it felt like a captain's duty to try and maintain shipboard spirits.

The first two worlds since Soejitra had been anything but uplifting. One had been blasted to shards by Iokath's tests, bombarded to the point that the crust liquefied and the atmosphere converted into a sulfurous horror that slaughtered all native life. The other was in some ways worse. Its inhabitants, some kind of short, slender, thin-limbed humanoids, had apparently survived the attack in some number. Unfortunately, their society failed to reform, and the survivors apparently starved to death within a handful of subsequent winters. Only fragmentary ruins of primitive buildings still stood.

Kanner held out hope that some had managed to escape offworld, but they'd found no evidence of ships capable of such things.

They mourned privately as they moved down the target list. Kanner kept himself busy charting hyperspace pathways, a suitably complex task that he could pour his attention into in search of a distraction. Caytoo was better at it than him, of course, the astromech droid could conduct complex calculations hundreds of times faster than any organic mind, but at least Kanner had the option to check the droid's work and try to intuit the path ahead. It helped, a little anyway.

He was sure it was worse for Arleyk. The sometime arts agent, curator, and historian placed a much higher valued on ancient history than he ever would, something that the vault of Soejitra had made perfectly clear. She suffered her burdens in silence; worked endlessly through planetary ecology data and compiled reports for the Alliance on the pair of devastated worlds.

With the silence of hyperspace as their backdrop, they spoke little. Such solace as could be found they took in each others' quiet company and the hope of better outcomes in the future.

Three worlds was not enough to make a pattern. It could be they had just been unlucky. Some star systems survived Iokathi weapons experiments, at the very least Zakuul had. Hopefully that was all it was.

"Reversion on my mark, and…mark," Kanner pushed the hyperspace lever forward and _Dustchaser_ flashed through the blue wall and streaking starlines into the cold star-dotted black of realspace.

"System data is populating from initial scans," from her position beside him Arleyk called out the sensors data as it emerged. They were, as far as they knew, the first explorers from Republic space to ever reach this star. The Iokath data might have proclaimed its location, and ancient astronomy logged the star type as a youngish yellow G5, but nothing else was known. "It appears to be a fairly simple stellar system. I'm detecting four planets, one terrestrial, and the other three ice giants. No major anomalies, but the amount of water on scan is quite high and we seem to be logging a large number of icy comets."

That last bit set alarm bells ringing in Kanner's head. "Please tell me our target's not an ocean planet." He had bad memories of nearly drowning in swells a kilometer high. It was not an experience he had any desire to repeat. Even now he tried to avoid any operation that required swimming.

"Technically, most habitable terrestrial planets would qualify as oceanic in nature," something in the way these words were spoken, perfectly polite but with just the slightest bit of sanctimony, suggested that Arleyk recognized his hesitation and found it somehow hilarious. He supposed teasing was an improvement on her otherwise morose mood. "As they possess greater wet area than dry, but don't worry, this world actually appears to be rather rocky. The water vapor concentration in the atmosphere is fairly high though. I suspect it rains regularly."

Rain wasn't exactly ideal. Kanner shared a general human tendency to prefer dry weather, but modern advanced fabrics could handle that part just fine no matter the downpour. Overall, the very existence of a viable water cycle was a positive sign. Stable ecosystems were a required precursor for survivors. "How are we doing on lifeform readings and technology?"

"There appears to be a fairly stable ecosystem in place," Arleyk summarized dryly. "Spectral analysis is coming back with reasonable photosynthetic cover alongside a fair amount of bare rock. Combined with the geological readings I'm getting and the strength of the magnetic field I suspect this planet is rather mountainous. The atmospheric dynamics rate pretty high on the scale as well, so it is likely to be windy and produce rugged terrain. I'm not getting any active technological readings from here, but there could still be an advanced civilization present, at low densities. The magnetic field could mask a reasonable amount of activity."

His own quick scan of the sensor board made it clear that, whatever was on the planet, there were no ships in the vicinity and no active space platforms. Any planet-based weapon powerful enough to damage _Dustchaser_ in orbit would also necessarily be detected from the power draw. It was sufficiently safe to move into close approach. No contact with an unknown world could ever be considered risk-free, but Kanner would accept having enough spare time to run as his threshold.

The running summary continued as they moved into high orbit. "This world has only a very modest axial tilt, so there will be almost no seasonality. Combined with the high levels of precipitation and atmospheric mixing and its climate is quite uniform at all latitudes. The principle determinant of local conditions appears to be elevation. Scans reveal extensive shallow seas intermixed with sharp-edged mountain ranges uplifted by massive geological shifts. Lowland marshes shade into an alpine ecosystem with major slopes that seems to be dominated by some kind of massively distributed vine-like moss structure. There's bare rock above that and at the highest elevations glaciation takes hold."

With a push of the button, he switched over to a topographic map. "Ugh," he scowled at the resulting image. "It's not going to be easily to land here. Anything flat is something we're likely to get stuck in." He extended the thought further. "We'll need to pull out the speeder for any ground activity. That's range limited, so let's make sure to get close to anything we want to look at."

A short whistle erupted from the rear, as Caytoo indicated he'd found something. Kanner read off the short translation of the droid's commentary from the screen and slewed _Dustchaser_ into a new pattern in response. "Looks like there's an anomaly in the southern hemisphere that might match with known Iokathi reactor signatures. It's very faint so we'll go sub-orbital over the pole and transfer into a high-altitude holding pattern."

"Right," confirmation came without her eyes ever leaving her station.

Upon descent they got their first real look at the planet's landforms. It was almost absurdly rugged, as if someone had taken a globe, mixed together water and mountains evenly, and then shaken as hard as they could. Sharp-sided slopes laced together along lengthy broken ridges, trailing down into the ocean and then erupting again after a short distance. There were no large united landmasses or any vast expanses of open ocean. A pallet of blue, green, and gray splotches formed this surface, occasionally broken up by a flash of brilliant white glaciation.

"There are tentative signs of intelligent habitation," hesitancy positively infected Arleyk's words as she managed her hopes with great care. "Certain large pit formations are suggestive of mining activity, and there are extensive structures on certain shores suggestive of some kind of aquaculture, but I'm not seeing any clearly defined agriculture or urbanization. If this world does host sapient residents it seems that they either have a very primitive lifestyle or live at quite low densities."

"Huh," it sounded plausible, but hardly welcoming. In Kanner's experience, primitive populations didn't take well to visitors, and he didn't want to try and play the first contact game. That was a job for cultural specialists and Jedi, not sometime arms merchants. "This looks like a pretty tough place to live," he opined. Everything looked cold, wet, and miserable from above, and he doubted it got better up close. Certainly he'd yet to find a good place to land.

"It does at that," the musings from beside him were considerably less grim. "But the Iokath report claims this world had flying machines capable of combat, which implies industrial civilization. Perhaps the survivors never recovered or-"

Whatever she'd intended to say next was cut off by the trill of alarms from the instrument panel. "Power spike," Kanner called out. "We've got something live down there, matches the anomaly." Without waiting, he banked the ship even lower, seeking to move in amongst the mountains in a steep dive. "I'm going to pull a close approach from the waterline. That ought to minimize our exposure. Caytoo, angle the deflector shield double-front. I want max protection in case whatever's down there tries to light us up."

_Dustchaser_ dropped rapidly, until she was mere meters above first dark emerald forests of strange, spike-branched plants and later choppy ocean swells. As steep-sided as the myriad mountain ridges were, there was plenty of open space between them. More than enough room to run full throttle in a straight-line approach to their target.

"The anomaly is partially submerged in the water almost equidistant from the nearest landforms, with close to fifteen klicks of open water on either side," Arleyk kept up her running summary for everyone's benefit. "It appears to be resting on some sort of underwater rocky promontory. I am unable to get a full picture, but it must be several hundred meters in length."

"I see it," visual scanning began to resolve beyond the domed cockpit panels. A massive gray construction, elongate and cylindrical, but with spars protruding in four directions, ninety degrees apart, from the front like a set of metal horns. The precise chassis was unfamiliar, but the shipbuilding style came across perfectly clear in principle lines.

This was an Iokathi vessel. Not quite an Eternal Fleet Cruiser, it was only half the size of one of those devastating warships at most, and considerably less bulky, but surely part of the same design scheme. The sort of ship that might have inspired those that came later.

It represented clear evidence of weapons testing on this world. They'd found exactly what the Alliance had sent them to discover.

And also something extremely dangerous. "Arleyk, does that thing have operational weapons?" Kanner demanded. Already he'd pressed _Dustchaser_ into a slewing motion, whipped back and forth across the swells, but the menacing hardpoints of gun turrets were resolving along the midline, and he felt fear creep up his spine.

"Scans indicate a power level consistent with emergency operations only," she replied to the Captain's great relief. "I suspect the main reactor was destroyed in whatever incident caused the ship to crash. However, there are other readings. Many of the internal systems may be operating, and I believe there may be any number of active droids still onboard."

The truth of this statement made itself known moments later, as reflective gleams in the cold sunlight flashed off shimmering chrome forms rolling out from forward docking bay. Quadrupedal machines with paired arms containing extended blaster barrels they could only be combat units. A status they confirmed by opening fire a moment later.

Sharp blats resounded off _Dustchaser_'s shields while near-misses sent plumes of steam flying dozens of meters into the air as the ocean boiled from impact. Physical impacts followed, setting the hull to ring like a bell as powerful railguns knocked one impact after another against shields and armor plating. Yellow and then red lights began to ignite across the main cockpit panel.

Kanner slewed to the side, hard, until the edge of the hull practically scraped the waves. The deflector shield did impact the liquid surface, and its passage hurled a huge spout of water upwards. This blue wall absorbed a series of shots as he adjusted the deflector shields and pulled into an evasive pattern. "Get to the belly guns!" he shouted at Arleyk. "I need to scatter them off so they can't concentrate fire and overwhelm the shields."

"Right." With quick, sure motions the blue-clad woman unbuckled and scrambled across the rolling deck toward the downward ladder. At the same time, Kanner took command of the dorsal laser cannon and opened fire. He lacked anything resembling accuracy using the cockpit controls, but ruby bolts lanced across the backstop of the fallen cruiser all the same.

Living opponents might have dived for cover at that stream of fire, but the swarm droids of Iokath knew no fear and cycled their weapons relentlessly. After a moment Arleyk added considerably more effective countermeasures using the ventral laser cannon, but though the powerful impacts shattered a number of droids, they did not retreat.

_Dustchaser_ whipped about, rising and then falling through a sinuous pattern as Kanner repositioned his ship to allow the ventral guns a perfectly clear shot while hovering at the edge of effective range. Repulsor indications screamed out in protest at this movement, but he pushed the ship to the edge all the same. "Caytoo, lock down those coils for me, we need to make this last." He called to the droid in engineering.

Math. That was the key. Specifically, the mathematics of blaster range. The scour droids might swarm about like spitting Colicoids, scores strong, but neither their blasters nor railguns could maintain the power to penetrate _Dustchaser_'s shields at the same range that his turreted cannons could shred them to scrap.

It was a balance Arlyek clearly understood. The curator would never qualify as a master gunner, but she systematically pushed her fire in lines from one droid to the next, pulsed devastating crimson particles through armor plates one by one. The ship shuddered and repulsor coils howled, but droid after droid crumpled, until, suddenly, they all vanished as one, rolled back within the confines of their shattered ship.

Far from a reprieve, this action sent a new alarm blaring through the cockpit. "Hells!" Kanner registered the action visually at the same moment.

One of the fallen cruiser's bow gun turrets was moving. While its actuators were apparently long ago smashed, a cluster of droids were working to bring it into line through the expedient of pushing together in unison. Sensors indicated that somehow they'd managed to power the battery.

Without a word, Kanner pulled _Dustchaser_ up to a vertical posture, standing perpendicular to the ocean below. He slammed the main engine lever all the way down, max power in full burn directly skyward.

The ship jerked hard, inertial dampers unable to compensate for this surge of motion, and shot upward. "Ow!" Arleyk barked from the gun turret as she was slammed against her seat. Caytoo let loose a furious, extended whine as he rolled into the back wall and toppled over. Clatter rained down throughout the ship as several imperfectly secured items broke loose.

Kanner ignored all of it. His eyes were glued to the targeting screen, and the stream of ship-smashing turbolaser fire that tracked upward from the surface to follow his ship. Higher and higher, closer and closer as the droids turned their gun faster than he could ascend. The ship shook as a pair of blasts detonated close enough to splash energy across the rear deflectors. "Come on, come on," he whispered over and over like a mantra, praying his ship would make it.

Then, just before the arc of gunfire would intersect their path, all fire ceased.

"Hah!" Kanner whooped, jerked against his straps in the outburst of joy. "Got ya!"

"Got what, exactly?" Arleyk called from below. Relief warred with confusion in her question.

"Their ship can't move, so they can only raise the turret so far," he shouted back, delighted satisfaction racing through his body. "There's a whole zone directly above the ship they can't attack. With a little mapping we can go back down and clear the rest of the droids out from-"

A sharp blast of anger, followed by a slow trill of woe, erupted from Caytoo's position.

_Dustchaser_ shook once in midair, then jerked aside as if slapped by a hand the size of a mountain.

Warning lights exploded across the instrument panel. Kanner's lunch rose up his throat as the ship began to tumble and spin.

"What's happening?" Arleyk called, barely suppressed panic streaked her words.

"Main repulsor coil's given out," the control stick fought him as he tried to maneuver the ship out of her tailspin and back into steady flight. "And the wind up here's fearsome. Must have hit a stormfront. Hold tight, I'll right her sure enough, but we need to find a place to put down. Can't maneuver at low altitude on engines alone for long." Doing so would stress the hull too much and eventually rip the ship in half, but he didn't feel inclined to share that part.

"I'm looking," adaptation to this circumstance emerged swiftly. "Try the other side of these mountains in front of us, that way we'll have some rock between us and the derelict."

He was already working on that goal, but said nothing. There was no real time for words, it took every bit of piloting acumen he had to angle the ship through the wind and keep her disk-shaped frame level. _Dustchaser_ had never been meant to fly on engines in an atmosphere. She rode the wind like a drugged dewback, with the temperament to match.

As they passed over the mountains, gray here as this crest was too low to host glaciers, Arleyk's quick eyes found an opportunity almost immediately. "I've located a flat spot, looks like it was opened by a volcanic blast, but the rock should be strong enough to support the ship. Turn to point oh-nine-one and take it as slow as you can."

Kanner pulled the helm around and cut power. This forced them into a continual descent, but it was the only way to drop speed. "I see it," he confirmed a moment later. "I'm going to take us in corkscrew style. Hold tight."

The steeply angled terrain meant they could only make two speed-sheeding passes instead of the three he would have preferred, but though the landing struts protested their final impact the ship came to a stop on the rocks without any setting off any truly serious alarms. The ground itself cracked a bit at the sudden imposition of weight, but the roughly angled platform remained hale with the light freighter on top. Scree rolled downhill, not the ship.

The captain sank back into his chair and let out a sigh of relief. Not the worst landing he'd ever survived, but worse than he'd ever hoped to experience again. "Everyone alright?"

"Affirmative," Arleyk answered. Caytoo followed up with a swift set of chirps.

"Okay," Straps detached in sequence as he emerged from the pilot's chair. "Let's pull things together and see where we stand."

Chapter Notes

JX967A24 is the location mentioned in Codex Entry: History of Iokath Entry 1.

Geographically the planet is intended to resemble the Pacific coastline of Southern Chile, with the entire surface looking like that.

In game, the Eternal Fleet is comprised of endless copies of exactly the same ship type. While this presumably illuminates something about Iokathi design philosophy, it seems reasonable to expect smaller testbed designs were utilized prior to the finalization of the fleet itself.


End file.
